Just like any invasion game, futsal has some basic principles that help your team to score goals – and stop them too.  

Attacking principles 

1. Penetrate 

Your team should think forward, look forward, run forward and play forward (alone or with others). If your team can’t go forward, they should try to keep the ball until they can. 

2. Be creative 

When attempting to beat an opponent, players should try to ‘produce the unexpected’. To do this, they could use their individual skill or combine with a teammate. 

3. Get moving 

Your players might need to lose an opponent, leave space, fill space or go to help a teammate. 

4. Provide support 

When working as a group, it’s important that players are always ‘an option’ for their teammates. Positioning themselves between opponents can help.  

5. Create space 

To attack successfully, your team needs width, length and depth. This will stretch the opposition’s defence. 

To see futsal’s attacking principles in action, play the video below. 

Defending principles 

1. Delay 

Your team need to slow down the opposition and prevent them from playing the ball forwards.  

2. Press 

If the opposition has possession, your team should apply pressure to the player with the ball. This makes it harder for them to attack. 

3. Provide cover 

If one of your players is pressing the opposition, their teammates should consider their position. Are they able to provide back up if the attacker wiggles through? 

4. Be compact 

If your team is defending, players should stay close together and block any gaps in their shape.   

5. Maintain balance 

Every game of futsal if different – and your players have to adapt to scenarios as they arise. But they also need to stay connected. Everyone in the team should know what you want to achieve – and how you’re going to get there.  

To see these defensive principles in action, play the video below. 

And remember: to implement these principles, players need to master futsal’s attacking and defending core skills.